she crawls out on a limb and begins building a home, and it's enough just to look around and know that she's not alone -- ani difranco

everyday

August 05, 2012

Things have been a little disorganized around here recently. The reason? I just started a new job!

The grant I worked for during the past five years ended in April, which left me unemployed for several months. However, a new grant was awarded to continue and extend the work of the previous grant. I was lucky enough to be hired for the new grant -- even better, I was promoted to a higher position. And while the extra money that comes along with a promotion is never a bad thing, a step up like this often means an increase in responsibilities. That's exactly the case right now, so I'm finding myself in a real adjustment period.

I've got a lot to get situated this week, as the girls start back to school on Tuesday and we've already kicked off the soccer season. As a result, things are going to be a bit quieter in this space for a week or two while I find my bearings. Thanks for your patience -- I hope you'll stick around through the quiet times as I find my way back to a new normal around here.

July 25, 2012

Every so often, I'll get a comment from someone -- on the blog, in the forums, during a chat -- and they'll ask me how I find time to do all the things that I do. I work fulltime, I teach classes or take classes at the university each semester, I design and blog and scrapbook, I have a busy family, and I still do things like read and knit and thrift.

The truth is, there are lots of things that combine to make it all possible. Chris and I split up when it comes to practices and games, just like we split up on household chores (though that involves the whole family, not just me and Chris). The girls are older, so they are able to do a lot more things for themselves, instead of needing me to do them for them (even simple things like baths, getting ready for bed. Then there's the fact that I'm a serious night owl, so a lot of work happens in the wee hours of the night.

But the biggest factor is that I have a pretty consistent organizational routine in terms of time management. I thought I would share it with you today. I know that time management is fairly personal, and what works for one person may not work for another. I share it in the hopes that you might find one or two little bits that could be helpful for you.

MY TOOLS OF THE TRADEThese are the things that are essential to the way I keep track of all of our obligations. Let me just say up front that, as much as I love technology, I just don't feel comfortable keeping track of everything with an online tool. Some people will claim it's because I haven't found the right app yet, but that's not it. I used my iPhone calendar and Google Calendar for over a year, and then switched back to paper. It's just a personal preference. Anyway, here's what I keep on hand:

a variety of sticky notes

a set of highlighters in a variety of colors

a Moleskine calendar

a set of Moleskin notebooks

I cannot say enough good things about my Moleskine calendar. It's actually a calendar and notebook all rolled into one; it contains a weekly calendar layout on the left side and a notebook page on the right side. It closes with an elastic band, and like all Moleskines, there's a pocket in the back for papers. (Side note: The first one I bought was actually the Academic version, so it was dated from August 2010 through December 2011. I've since switched over to the yearly version.)

For me, this is the perfect solution because I am a note-taker; it's my preferred learning style. The calendar sections offer me plenty of room to write down all of our responsibilities, and the notebook page gives me a place to record all the things that otherwise end up jotted down on scraps of paper -- Cassidy's stats for her cross-country meet, a reminder about what books I want to find at the library this week, a note about a funny thing that Cami said in the car. The best part is that all of this information is in one place, and I can store it on my bookshelf when this year is over, then take it down and look at it again later. I've actually gone back to my calendar multiple times while scrapbooking to find dates, notes, comments, etc. for journaling.

MY SYSTEM: CALENDAR SIDEIf anything has a due date -- soccer practice, a meeting for work, a digital kit release in my shop, a book due at the library -- it gets written on the calendar page. Then I bring in the highlighters. Each person in our family has a color assigned to them.

Cami -- pink

Cassidy -- blue

me (work) -- yellow

me (design/other) -- orange

Chris/family/big dates -- green

The benefit of highlighting these items is that I can see at a glance what kind and how many responsibilities I have each day. I chose to use two different colors for my fulltime work and my design work, because I wanted to be able to keep those two things separate. I create my own design schedule, so it obviously can be more flexible than the deadlines and obligations I have for my regular job. To be honest, there's not much information about Chris that gets put on the schedule. If he's taking a class or having to work overtime (scheduled in advance), then I note it. Otherwise, green is reserved for family trips, big dates (like spring break, Christmas break, first day of school).

MY SYSTEM: NOTEBOOK SIDEAt the top of my notebook pages, I keep a blog schedule. I try to plan my blog posts a couple of weeks in advance. Of course, I might not actually get the post written until the night before it goes live, but I at least have topics planned out a couple of weeks in advance. For me, if I at least know what I'm planning to do, then I can be thinking about it in the back of my mind and by the time I need to create something, I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do.

If I have notes that need to be more portable -- that might need to be moved to a stack of papers, or a folder, or another notebook -- then I'll write them on sticky notes and just stick them to that note page. That way, I can move them around without having to rewrite them.

MY DESIGN WORK AND SCRAPBOOKINGI use a three-pack of Moleskine Cahier notebooks with kraft covers for my inspiration books. I have a simple label sticker on the front, where I wrote inspiration. However, these notebooks can easily be dressed up with patterned papers, stickers, and more, if you'd prefer.

Inside, I just make lists. I keep lists of scrapbook pages I need to make, photos I need to use, kits I want to design, quotes I want to use. When something is completed, I mark through it. A couple of times a month, I go through the notebook, page by page, looking at my lists. Sometimes I condense lists or move items to another list. Sometimes I decide that an item just isn't worth the effort, so I get rid of it.

So that's what works for me. My calendar is the first thing I look at each morning, and the last thing I check before heading to bed in the evening. When I sit down at my computer to design or scrap, I pull out my notebook. Both items fit easily into a pocket of my purse/worktote, so I can easily carry them wherever I go.

I'd love to hear how you keep your family and work life organized. What paper tools do you use? What digital tools do you use?

July 20, 2012

Happy Friday everyone! Today's the day I get to pick Cami up from her first summer camp; she went to a conservation camp sponsored by the Fish & Wildlife Department about 45 minutes from here. She's spent the week in classes like swimming, archery, canoeing, outdoor survival, firearm and hunter safety, nature, and more! She's been looking forward to it so much, so I really hope she had a great time. I know we've missed her around here, so it will be nice to have her back home.

I finished Summer Morning, Summer Evening by Ray Bradbury last night, and when I was done, I just had to sigh at the beauty of his writing. He's one of my favorite authors, and his passing took a light from this world, I truly believe. This short story collection is actually all the leftover bits and pieces that got cut from Dandelion Wine and Farewell Summer years ago. (I really wish I had known about the signed limited editions that Subterranean Press offered when it first came out). It's the perfect little book to read during the summer months, and I particularly was drawn to this little passage. It's called "The People With Seven Arms," and it's a conversation between Grandfather and Douglas:

"It came late," said Grandfather. "For Tom. It started early for you and it's still going on. Discovering things, looking at things, smelling, sniffing, tasting things. Hearing things. It should never stop. It stops for most people, but they shouldn't let it. Don't let it. Keep it up all your life. I do. I do keep it up every day. Like with the lawn, and the dandelion wine. See, hear, feel, touch, smell, know, and you love. Put out your hands. God gave you seven. Your two regular ones, plus nose, mouth, eyes, ears, skin.

"When you stop knowing you stop loving and when you stop loving you're not living, and when you're not living, Douglas boy, you might as well be dead."

I had to stop and read that two or three times. For me, that passage says so much about how we should experience the world, and how I think Bradbury experienced it right up until he passed out of it.

To finish off this Friday post, I've got a freebie for you. This set of numbers and signs coordinates with my Handpainted Alphabet, which is available in the shop. There's also a set of Handpainted Adjectives, and you can purchase the two of them separately or as a bundle -- if you don't already have them, of course.

July 09, 2012

We're back home after a week in Memphis with family. We had a great time, just hanging out -- we took in two big fireworks celebrations, went to a family reunion, saw Brave, did some fishing, hung out at Incredible Pizza, and just generally enjoyed our time with family. We're heading to the doctor this afternoon, though, as Cami is complaining of a sore throat and upset stomach, which normally indicates strep around here. Poor kiddo! In the meantime, here's what's going on around the shop:

NewsletterIf you haven't signed up for my newsletter, I encourage you to take a few minutes to do so. This is a great way to get exclusive coupon codes and other savings, plus free products -- including a fun set of flairs just for signing up.New kit coming soonSports Fanatic is releasing on Thursday -- it's a new kit full of papers, word art, elements, and a build-your-own-set of paper rosettes that is perfect for all kinds of sports pages, from Little League to the Olympics. Take advantage of this chance to win it early by leaving a comment on the post about your favorite Olympic sport.

Friday freebiesEach Friday, I post a new freebie, most of which are designed to coordinate with products in my shop. If you've missed them, there are still two available: Daily Frames and Whiz Kid Scatters. At the end of each month, I'll take them down from the blog and move them to the shop. They'll still be free, but you'll have to go through the shopping process to get them instead of simply clicking once to download.Tuesday tutorialsI've been posting simply Photoshop tutorials on Tuesdays -- tips and tricks for how I achieve certain effects on different layouts I've created. So far, I've posted one about recoloring alphas and adding a brush for texture, as well as one about matching the tone of your black and white photos to your layout with a subtle color cast. If you have ideas for further tutorials you'd like to see, please leave a comment here -- I'd love to hear your ideas.

Telling Stories at Masterful Scrapbook DesignThe wonderful and talented Debbie Hodge has invited me once again to teach at Masterful Scrapbook Design during the month of July. This month, the topic is Telling Stories. I'll be sharing my favorite journaling techniques, as well as the stories behind the genesis of a handful of scrapbooking layouts. I'll be joined by the awesome Celeste Smith, Emily Pitts, Karen Grunberg, and Noell Hyman.

DHD's 4PlayFinally, my She Is elements set is on sale for just $1.00 today as part of our 4Play feature. Pick up all four kits (one is free, and the other 3 are just $1.00 each), create a layout, and post a link to it on our blog -- and you could win a DHD gift certificate! We've got new kits up every Monday, so it's a great way to get involved and grab some great products, too. Here are some inspiration layouts using the She Is elements; while at first glance they might appear pretty feminine, they'll work for masculine pages too.

June 15, 2012

Don't forget about my CT call -- you can find out all the details in this post. Can't wait to hear from you!

Have I mentioned how much I love this Take Twelve project? It really is so easy to complete -- here we are in June, almost halfway through, and I haven't fallen behind or quit yet. The key for me is how flexible this project is -- it's easy to substitute a different day or to add in pictures later. Here's a look at June 2012.

1. Loading up the Durango for our trip to Lexington/Springfield/Harrodsburg.

2. Breakfast on the road from Hardee's.

3. Road construction on the West Kentucky Parkway -- a really typical sight during the summer months.

4. Rupp Arena to pick up Cass.

5. After months of studying, Cass competed in the State FFA Sheep Impromptu contest.

6. St. Catharine College for Academic team camp -- or "nerd camp," as Cass calls it. (That's her walking along the sidewalk on the left side.)

7. Where Cami and I stayed for the night -- Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill.

8. Our room.

9. Cami checking out the view from the window.

10. Historica downtown Harrodsburg.

11. 20 questions with Cami while eating supper at Pizza Hut.

12. Shooing the ducks and geese out of the way so we could take a quick sunset drive along the grounds before heading to our room for the night.

Did you participate in Take 12 this month? Link me up to your photos or layouts -- I'd love to see them!

March 23, 2012

Just a few announcements for the weekend, before I log off and finish out my Spring Break weekend as unplugged as I can get.

My Count Your Memories collab with Erica Coombs is 25% off through the weekend. We're also chatting at 4 pm CST on Sunday at the DHD Chat Room -- freebies will be involved. Come hang out for an hour or so!

Speaking of freebies, I've got a couple of card freebies for you on this blog post. Just click on the link and when the image opens up, right click and save it. It's just a .jpg file, so you can print straight from that image, no fancy programs required.

Everything in my shop will be 25% off this weekend, so if you've been eyeballing something, now's a great chance to get it at a discounted price. I've got some free and $1.00 kits available as well: Tribal elements is free, and Orange Crush, Jar of Hearts Papers, and Small Talk Bubbles are all $1.00 through Sunday night.

One last thing: I've got a new article up on Ella Publishing's e-zine, Scrapbook Ellaments, about using your favorite TYPES of books for scrapbooking design inspiration. I guest posted there almost two years ago on a similar topic, so it was fun to revisit the idea of using books for inspiration. I hope you'll give it a read and let me know what you think.

Now, I'm off to finish up some laundry and dishes, take the recycling to the drop-off center, and grade a handful of essays. I'm taking Cass to see The Hunger Games this weekend, and I've got two novels I'd like to finish before Spring Break is over. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you at the chat on Sunday!

March 22, 2012

I seem to be on a scrapbooking kick again (YAY!) I really struggle with finding a balance between designing and scrapping -- normally, if I'm doing a lot of designing, then I'm doing very little scrapping. I am still really thinking about the type of scrapping I want to continue doing. I know that I've moved away from documenting every little thing -- but sometimes I miss having that kind of record of our lives. The issue for me becomes one of space and practicality. I have 10+ 3-ring binders plus a couple of 12x12 binders filled with scrapbook pages of our family, and while the girls love looking through them, storage is an issue in our home. Of course, I've only printed a handful of the hundreds of digital pages I have completed; my goal is to get them printed this year. I still have a couple of photo books I need to finish and print, as well, but those are a better "fit" for us in terms of space. I'm really considering starting Project Life -- yes, even at this late date -- but I'm just not sure if I'll actually stick with it.

I feel like I'm really in a reading rut right now. I just finished a book that I'm just feeling so-so about, and I've got a couple others from the library that I need to finish before they are due, but I just don't have the drive to pick them up. It doesn't help that I feel (self-induced, I'll admit) pressure to keep reading so that I don't get behind on my reading goal. I've been considering joining Audible so that I can "get through" a few more books on my to-read list a little easier; it would be simpler to listen as I'm doing chores around the house, working on the laptop, or traveling for work. From what I've heard, they have a pretty great membership deal and great sales -- have you used their services? What do you think?

I'm on Spring Break right now -- the university gives staff 3 days off (students and faculty get the entire week -- almost not fair, eh?) Chris is off, too, and today we spent cleaning out the garage. We took an entire carload of stuff to Goodwill and took a trailer full of broken junk to the transfer station. I just cringe at the amount of stuff we accumulate, although I'll be honest: 95% of the stuff we got rid of today was stuff that we've owned for at least 5 years or longer. Most of it was stuff that moved to Murray with us but that we've eventually phased out of the house. One item was our 18-year-old television that just recently quit working. The garage is so much more accessible now, which makes me happy. I like having a place for everything and everything in its place.

The weather has been crazy here lately. For the past two days, we've had temperatures in the upper 80's; thankfully tomorrow will be back in the 70's again. We did have the windows open, but it got so warm that we had to turn the air conditioning on. Luckily, with the temps dropping again, we can open the windows back up -- that's one of my favorite things about spring and fall: open windows.

Make sure you stop by the shop today; I've got a new collab out with Erica Coombs and a couple of new products releasing in my shop as well. Everything is 30% off on the release date, so it's a great time to buy.

February 14, 2012

February is one of my favorite months at Design House Digital, because that's when we have our Daily Dollar Deals: every day, several brand new kits are released in the shop and for the entire month of February, they're only $1.00 each. Right now, I've got three Dollar Deal products available:

If you haven't grabbed any (or all) of these products yet, make sure you grab them before February is over, because once March blows in, they'll revert back to the original pricing! $1.00 is too good a deal to let pass you by!

Did you remember to take your 12 photos on February 12th for the Ella Publishing Co. Take 12 Scrapbook Challenge? I didn't focus on any particular theme this time around -- I just snapped what caught my eye. But when I sat down to upload the photos I'd taken to the Take 12 Flickr pool, I realized that almost every single one represented something that our family loves, in one way or another (heck, what woman doesn't love a photo of her husband vacuuming the floors, right?) How fitting for February!

If you're still looking for a way to scrap your Take 12 photos, I've got some products in my shop that make putting together coordinating pages really simple: the 2012 digital kit and the 2012 Photo Templates Vol.1 and Vol.2. Here's a look at the digital kit, as well as a peek at a new template (part of a set of 4) that will be releasing on Thursday.

I've been shooting all of my #Take12 photos with my iPhone 4s camera and then editing/sharing them in Instagram. I really LOVE the Lo-fi filter and use it on almost all of my photos.

DESIGN TIP: That sketchy/stampy black border is my favorite. It works great for scrapbooking these photos too, because you can easily erase the white edges, leaving you with just the stamped border, like I did in the layout above.

January 30, 2012

Thursday was a pretty eventful day for me. I traveled to Russellville that afternoon to do some ACT prep with about 50 juniors and then traveled on to Nashville to the Nashville Public Library to hear Erin Morgenstern read from her amazing novel, The Night Circus. I can't say enough good things about this novel -- I listed it as one of my Top 10 Reads of 2011, and in all honesty, it's in the Top 3. Yep. That good.

Erin was completely adorable and funny and smart and talkative; she read a small vignette from the novel (and I totally picked up on some things in the vignette that I didn't catch the first time around because of the overlapping linear narratives -- this is not a bad thing, but it does mean that I'm now itching to go back and reread the book). After that, she answered questions. She talked a lot about art (she's a visual artist), theatre, book design, movies, and influences on the novel. She spent a lot of time talking about the evolution of the novel, which she started in 2005 as part of NaNoWriMo; initially there was, according to her, this Edward Gorey kind of thing going on, with characters in weird fur coats. But at some point she started getting bored, so she took the characters to the circus. That's when the circus from the novel was born, and she spent much of the rest of the time writing about it. There's so much that's visual about her writing when it comes to the circus, and after listening to her talk about her painting process, it's evident that this background strongly influenced the novel too.

She named a couple of my favorite novels as influences on the book's structure: Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Christopher Priest's The Prestige, and Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams. After the reading, while getting my book signed, I told her how much I loved Lightman's novel, and she proceeded to gush about his new book -- which means one more thing to add to my TBR list.

If you've read the novel, you know that the followers of the circus call themselves reveurs and dress in black and white (with a dash of red -- typically a scarf). Two little boys attended the reading with their dad and came dressed appropriately. They each got their own copy of the book signed and had their photo taken with Erin Morgenstern; such a cool thing for their dad to encourage. Everyone was absolutely in love with them.

The fun doesn't stop there, though. The weather was pretty terrible in Nashville -- heavy rain and a dense fog. Combine that with interstate traffic and lots of semi trucks, and you've got one sucky driving experience. I took it slow, though, and was soon out of Nashville and headed home. I was starving, though, so I stopped in Clarksville to grab a bite to eat. While I was waiting in the drive-thru, I checked Twitter and saw that the bridge closest to Murray that crosses Kentucky Lake was struck by a cargo ship and had collapsed. This is one of the bridges that I would need to cross to get home, the same bridge I had crossed just hours earlier on my way to Russellville from Murray -- a bridge I use weekly to travel to and from several of the schools I work with. Luckily, I saw the tweet before I traveled through LBL and had to turn around to find a detour; instead, I just headed north of the LBL area and took the interstate bridge. It wasn't too far out my way, but I was counting my blessings that I wasn't on the bridge when it was struck (that could've easily been the case, had I been slowed down by bad weather or stopped to eat in Clarksville) or didn't come up on it before emergency crews responded.

Here are a few images of the bridge and cargo ship (click on the photos to be taken to the original source):

January 19, 2012

I've got a simple new product line coming to Design House Digital over the next couple of weeks. The first release are these easy-to-use photo templates, perfect for scrapping your Take Twelve Photo Challenge pictures. These templates can be used to easily create a digital layout of your Take Twelve photos; you can also use the templates as a way to share your photos on your blog each month. In addition, these templates are flexible enough to use for printing and scrapping the traditional way, too. There are four photo templates: 2x6, 3x4, 4x3, 6x2 (that's width by height) and they come in two styles: square corners and rounded corners.

Each template comes as a layered .psd file, meaning that each square is on a separate layer. Using these in Photoshop or PSE is really simple. Just open the template, and then open your photos. Place one photo above the layer where you'd like to have it located in your photo grid. Resize your photo as necessary, and then click Ctrl G to "clip" your photo to the template square. Make any adjustments to the location and then click Ctrl E to merge the two layers together. Repeat these steps with the rest of your photos, and then merge all the layers together. Here's a tutorial from the DHD blog to help you out.

Here's what the templates look like in action. I used the 4x3 template with rounded corners; I chose the 4x3 orientation because my photos were divided into morning, afternoon, and evening and this arrangement let me keep them grouped in that way. The other products I used are a brief glimpse at some of the products you'll see in next week's release in my digital shop. My plan is to use these items throughout the year on my Take Twelve Challenge.

Speaking of the Take Twelve Challenge, have you signed up for Ella Publishing's reminder email yet? It only takes a few minutes; fill out the required fields and make sure to check the box that says "Take Twelve Project." You'll be sent monthly email reminders about the Take Twelve Photo Challenge, and you'll get some great opportunities to share your photos and win prizes! Also, don't forget to check out the Ella Blog today to see how other team members are scrapping their Take Twelve photos.